2008 Top Newspapers, Blogs & Consumer Magazines

BurrellesLuce (the media monitoring service I use at the NKY Convention & Visitors Bureau) is out with its 2008 Top Newspapers, Blogs and Consumer Magazines. The numbers and changes from 2007

Newspapers
1. USA Today
2. Wall Street Journal
3. New York Times
4. LA Times
5. The Daily News (NY-moves up one slot flip-flopping with NY Post)

English Language Blogs
1. Huffingtonpost.com (5 last year)
2. Techcrunch.com (4)
3. Engadget.com (1)
4. Gizmodo.com (3)
5. Boingboing.net (2)

Magazines (all ranked same as in '07)
1. AARP The Magazine
2. AARP Bulletin
3. Readers Digest
4. Better Homes & Gardens
5. National Geographic

Blogs, Social Networking More Important With Newspapers' Decline

I was facilitating a session of the Cincinnati American Marketing Association chapter's newly formed Non-Profit Shared Interest Group this morning led by local blogging guru Michelle Lentz. Michelle talked about the importance and growth of blogging and how it impacts impressions of your organization whether it's a non-profit or for-profit. I was reflecting on this especially in light of the great decline in traditional media, places like the Cincinnati Enquirer (http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-259-bloodletting-at-the-enquirer.html). Pardon the cliche, but the hand-writing has been on the wall for the past year or two as the Enquirer has launched its Get Published initiative. Coverage in standard news media sources is not going to get better/more plentiful. It's going to get worse. Gannett, the Enquirer's parent now considers the daily newspaper a baby-boomer niche publication according to one high-ranking executive to whom I spoke. It really does reinforce the notion that blogging, tweeting and the use of Facebook and other social networking tools is going to grow as businesses and charities alike try to expand their notoriety in the public eye.

Blog Does Not Mean Blab

In the seven months or so I've been blogging I have been become very aware that there is a great responsibility in speaking out regarding topics and news I hear in casual conversation in business settings. I may even hear something said in a public forum that the speaker may not want repeated in another distribution channel, such as a blog. The other responsibility one has when becoming a blogger is to post items often enough so they are perceived as "serious." If you don't post enough, people begin to ignore or forget you. It's those people who irresponsibly dispense information that they haven't checked for accuracy, then go to the added extent of expressing an ill-informed point of view. This can be dangerous because media has been increasingly using blogs as a foundation for news stories. A survey of journalists, released today by Brodeur (http://blogs.mediapost.com/research_brief/?p=1621) says that reporters use blogs to help shape the tone of stories.

If a blog is sensationalistic in its treatment of subjects and individuals, a reporter might use the tone of the blog to help shape the way that person or topic is portrayed in follow-up news stories. All bloggers should take a vow that when they write, they are using povs based upon fact and not hearsay or innuendo. They should also be careful to balance their opinions with reaction from those holding different viewpoints. That's the credo that traditional journalists subscribe to. Bloggers should be no different.